"It's always a guess, a gamble, where these bears come from," said Don VandeBergh, a state wildlife biologist who led Wednesday's bear-capture operation. But with food resources scarce in upper elevations because of wet and cold weather, the array of food choices – garbage, compost, dog food – in the urban area could have enticed the 200-pound, male bear, officials said.

The bear, officials said, most likely came from the Coast Range rather than from the east because it would have traveled through even more urban areas had it come from the Cascades. Officials estimated the bear is about 4 years old, and said it's common for young male bears to be on the move looking for mates at this time of year.

View full sizeTualatin Valley Fire & RescueOfficials tranquilized the bear and safely removed it from a tree early Wednesday afternoon.

The bear was spotted in the neighborhood near the school about 5:45 a.m., said Jennifer Massey, a Tualatin Police Department spokeswoman. Police blocked off Southwest 95th Avenue and contained the animal within a field behind the school.

For hours, it paced the field, at times standing, running, entering the school's property and crossing 95th Avenue. Police blared sirens on their patrol cars to keep the bear within the field's boundaries.

Officials formed two teams, armed with tranquilizer guns, stationing one team on the north end of the field and one on the south end, VandeBergh said. The south end team, its members lying flat atop a blue storage unit, took two shots at the bear but missed.

Bear captured near Tualatin Elementary SchoolA surprise visitor to Tualatin Elementary School evaded capture for several hours before eventually climbing a tree and being safely tranquilized. The bear will be returned to a more appropriate habitat soon.

Eventually, the bear, which grew more agitated during the morning, darted through the field and across 95th Avenue. It ran into a grassy area and up a tree behind a home in the 9300 block of Southwest Umiat Street. There, VandeBergh shot it with a tranquilizer dart.

The bear climbed another 30 to 40 feet, and then fell asleep in the tree, VandeBergh said. Members of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue's Technical Rescue team responded and a firefighter climbed the tree and created a harness around the bear, which was about 60 feet up, attaching ropes to lower the animal to the ground.

While the bear was still in the tree, officials used a syringe to administer another dose of tranquilizer. The bear was bleeding where it was hit by the dart and paramedics treated the wound, said Rick Swart, a state fish and wildlife spokesman.

"It was heart warming to watch the paramedics tend to the animal as if it was a human being," he said.

The bear was placed in a trailer cage, which was hauled to the district office on Sauvie Island for a biologist to observe and further evaluate the animal for injuries. Swart said officials planned to release it in a remote location, on state land, in the Coast Range Wednesday evening.

The operation caused a spectacle in the neighborhood, with residents gathering in the street, snapping photos as they watched.

Brent Petersen, 41, was in his backyard when police began yelling at him to go inside. Soon, the bear meandered through his backyard.

"Then he walked through the neighborhood and scoped it out," Petersen said.

Not long afterward, Petersen was outside and saw the bear approaching from about 50 yards away. The animal again continued into his yard, and he and a police officer watched the bear swiftly climb the tree.

"I just thought, 'Well, this is interesting,'" he said, laughing.

Wildlife officials estimate that 25,000 to 30,000 black bears live in the state. Another black bear that was spotted Tuesday in Washington state near the Vancouver Trout Hatchery turned up in a park in Vancouver Wednesday morning.

That young bear was nabbed from a tree early Wednesday on the Clark College campus, a short distance from downtown Vancouver, officials said. A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife official fired a sedative dart into the bear, which fell onto a net and bounced harmlessly to the ground.

Swart said residents in the Portland area should be aware that it's possible for bears to wander into urban areas.